If you’re trying to eat well and you have children, you’ll know this wall. You make yourself something nourishing, then a second dinner for the kids, then pick at their leftovers while you clear up.
Cooking two dinners every night is exhausting. It’s also unnecessary.
Healthy food and family food can be the same food
A lot of women assume eating well means eating differently from everyone else. Salads for you, pasta for them. In reality, most nourishing meals are ones the whole family already knows.
Tacos, homemade burgers, traybakes, pasta dishes, curries, stir-fries and soups all work. With a few tweaks, they give you plenty of protein and vegetables without anyone at the table feeling like they’re on a diet.
The tweaks that make the difference
Add extra vegetables. Grated courgette and carrot disappear into bolognese and chilli. Spinach wilts into almost any sauce. Peppers and onions bulk out fajitas.
Enough protein, always. Lean mince, chicken, fish, eggs, beans and lentils all work well. Mixing lentils into a mince dish stretches it further and adds fibre.
Choose wholegrain where you can. Wholewheat pasta, or half and half if the rest of the family is sceptical. Brown rice, and wholemeal wraps for taco night.
Balance your own plate. You don’t need a different meal. Serve yourself more protein & veg and a little less pasta if that fills you up better, and let everyone else build their plate their way.
Serve it build-your-own style
Fussy eaters often do better when they have some control. Put the components in separate bowls and let everyone assemble their own. Tacos and wraps are perfect for this, and it works with rice bowls and roasted traybakes too.
Take the pressure off
Children often need to see a food many times before they’ll try it (and by many I mean a whole lot of times), and pressure tends to make that slower. Put the food on the table and eat it yourself. Let them decide how much to have.
I used to avoid serving our toddlers salads with leafy ingredients like rocket salad. One day they wanted to try it, and it turns out they loved it (to my big surprise).
Your job is to offer a balanced meal. Their job is to decide how much of it to eat. That split, which many feeding specialists recommend, takes a lot of the battle out of dinner.
Plan meals that please most people
When you’re planning the week, start with meals everyone already likes, then add the tweaks. Save new recipes for nights when you have a bit more time & energy, and introduce one at a time.
Over time you’ll build a list of dinners that work for the whole family. Rotate them, and dinner stops being a daily negotiation.
One meal, less stress
Cooking once gives you your evening back. It also shows your children that eating well is a normal part of family life.
If family meals are part of what makes healthy eating hard for you, every recipe in The Habit Reset is family-friendly, so you only ever cook once.
